The OHR said on its web site on Monday that the Central Election Commission's decision would be temporarily suspended until the High Representative decided otherwise.

This order from the OHR "shall enter into force forthwith".

Last Thursday, Bosnia and Herzegovina's Central Election Commission (SIP) annulled the recent election of the President and two Vice-Presidents of the Bosnian Federation.

The SIP established that the election of Zivko Budimir as President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of Svetozar Pudaric and Mirsad Kebo as Vice-Presidents was unlawful, because they were elected in the Federation's House of Peoples that was not founded in compliance with the election law, since not all deputies' mandates were certified.

"The appointment of deputies from all ten cantonal legislatures to the House of Peoples has not been carried out in line with the election legislation, which means that conditions for the establishment of the House of Peoples have not been met. Our second decision is to annul the election of the President and the two Vice-Presidents of the Federation as a result of our conclusion that this procedure in the Federation's parliament has not been carried out in accordance with the election law of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our third decision is to order cantonal assemblies that have not yet appointed (their deputies for the House of Peoples) to immediately convene sessions and do it," the SIP chairwoman Irena Hadziabdic told reporters in Sarajevo then.

However, the OHR said today that the Bosnian election legislation did not prevent the verification of mandates of all elected deputies and that correspondingly, it is inadmissible to allow the blockade of the formation of the government which has ensued since the two major Bosnian Croat parties -- HDZ BiH and the HDZ 1990 -- decided not to appoint deputies to the House of Peoples in the Federation's parliament from cantonal legislatures where they hold the majority.

This is an obvious act of violation of the Constitution and the Bosnian election legislation, the OHR said, adding that the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board had requested the Office of the High Representative to undertake efforts to facilitate the formation of the authorities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The OHR said that it was within the remit of only the Constitutional Court in the Croat-Bosniak entity to decide whether the election of the new government and leaders in the Federation was in accordance with the law and the constitution.

The SIP spokeswoman said that the Commission had received the order from the OHR and would not comment on it.

Ten days ago, the bloc led by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) saw to it that Budimir, Pudaric and Kebo were elected as the Federation's leaders so that the SDP-led coalition could continue with the forming of the new government.

The HDZ BiH and HDZ 1990 parties challenged this election, claiming that the SDP-led coalition ignored the will of the Croat electorate. Although a majority of votes from the Bosnian Croat electorate had been mustered by those two parties, they were not included in the new Federation government.

The SDP-led coalition has said that it will not respect the SIP's decisions, explaining that it will only abide by rulings of the Federation's Constitutional Court.